Hendrick Avercamp

   Designer Zoot Cases
Page Under Construction- will feature locations in Belgium that are burgundian models for locations in Northern California.

        The most important place is the postage-stamp sized province of Neutral Moresnet in the North-east corner of Belgium (the white triangle on the map).  Before World War I Neutral Moresnet was a zinc mining area that was important enough that Germany, Holland, and Belgium wanted to control it, yet wasn't important enough to fight over.

        The language Esperanto was proposed to be the official language of Neutral Moresnet.  Esperanto is a made-up language that was intended to bring people together and promote world peace.  In Esperanto's heyday around 1910 it was spoken by millions of people as a second language.

       The page will use the metaphor of "Dancing on Water" to describe Flanders, and Flemish culture, in the framework the mayor Flemish cities, including Maastricht on the border between Flanders and Holland and Neutral Moresnet.

      Flemish is one of the lightest, most melodic, and most playful central Germanic languages.  The sound of Flemish conversation resembles a babbling brook. The Flemish use the word "babbeling", to describe conversation.

      There is a good correlation between the major Flemish cities and the cities of the California Bay Area:

Major City Antwerp- San Francisco
University City Gent- Berkeley
University City Leuven- Palo Alto
Beach City Oostende-Santa Cruz
Hasselt- Current Sister City of Mountain View
Central City Mechelen-San Jose
Medieval City Brugges- Old Capital Monterey
Spa-just outside of Flanders in Wallonia- Calistoga in Napa

(Note: Because Brussels is French speaking, it doesn't really count as a "Flemish" City. A good analogy for Brussels is the idiosyncratic capital of Texas- Austin.)